1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pay telephone monitoring system which accumulates at a central office location information concerning the amount of money present in the coin collection box of one or more pay telephones, and the amounts collected from the collection box. More particularly, the system is designed to be connected with existing central office equipment to provide a passive, non-intrusive pay telephone monitoring system which provides useful information to a telephone company concerning the amount of coins present in the collection box of one or more pay telephones, as well as collection histories. The invention also relates to a pay telephone monitoring system which is able to detect certain conditions occurring in a pay telephone and/or lines connected thereto which may indicate faulty equipment.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Despite significant achievements in the sophistication of telephone equipment and the additional features and services afforded by such equipment, there remains a significant deficiency with respect to the monitoring of pay telephone stations. Specifically, telephone companies have, as of yet, not been able to efficiently schedule the collection of pay station coin boxes, since it is difficult for the central offices to accurately determine how much money is present in a given pay telephone coin collection box. As a consequence, because an accurate determination of the amount of money present in a collection box is not known, the telephone company is susceptible to fraud in the collection process, as well as inefficiencies and costly procedures in the scheduling and collecting of the coin boxes of the many pay telephones which it services, and in the handling, counting, guarding and accounting of the money collected. Also, the telephone companies have not yet been able to solve the problem of having pay telephones sit idle because of full collection boxes which prevent telephone operation.